1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates to laundry treating machines, and more particularly, to a laundry treating machine which is made to clean a lint filter provided for filtering lint produced when laundry is being dried.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, as examples of the laundry treating machine, there are washing machines, and drying and washing machines. The washing machine is a product for removing different kinds of dirt from clothes and beddings by using a softening action of detergent and a friction and an impact to the laundry of a water circulation caused by a pulsator or a drum. A full automatic washing machine appeared recently progresses a series of strokes of a washing course, a rinsing course, a spinning course, and so on without user's intervention.
And, the drying and washing machine is a kind of the washing machine which can perform functions of the washing machine described above as well as drying the laundry washed thus. In the drying and washing machine, there are condensing type drying and washing machines in which air drawn from the tub has moisture removed therefrom by water used for condensing, and is heated and introduced to the tub, gain.
A related art condensing type drying and washing machine will be described with reference to FIG. 1, briefly. As shown, the drying and washing machine 10 is provided with a cabinet 11 which forms a space therein, a tub 12 housed in cabinet 11, a drum 13 rotatably mounted in the tub 12, a condensing duct 14 formed on an outside of the tub 12 for condensing moisture contained in the air from the tub 12, a heating duct 15 connected to downstream of the condensing duct 14 in a flow direction of the air for heating the air with a heater 16 and providing the air heated thus to an inside of the tub 12, and a fan 17 for making the air in the tub 12 to circulate along the condensing duct 14 and the heating duct 15.
In drying the laundry, the drying and washing machine 10 described thus dries the laundry with rotation of the drum and the air heated as the air is moved by the fan 17, heated by the heater 16 provided to the heating duct 15, and supplied to the inside of the tub 12.
Then, the heated air having the laundry dried thereby is turned to wet air as the heated air dries the laundry, introduced to the condensing duct 14 from the tub 12, and has the moisture removed therefrom at the condensing duct 14. In this case, the condensing duct 14 has cooling water supplied thereto separately for condensing the wet air. In the meantime, the air introduced to the condensing duct 14 is supplied to the heating duct 15 by the fan 17, again. Thus, the air is circulated by repeating above steps.
In order to condense moisture contained in the wet air being introduced to the condensing duct in the steps, it is required to keep supplying a high flow rate of cooling water in the course of drying the laundry, which causes a problem of wasting of the cooling water.
Moreover, in drying the laundry, the lint contained in the laundry is liable to be introduced through the condensing duct 14 together with the air, and remain at the condensing duct 14, the fan 17, and the heating duct 15. Consequently, the lint remaining at the condensing duct 14 is liable to reduce efficiency of the condensing duct, the lint remaining at the condensing duct 14 is liable to make the fan to go out of order, and the lint remaining at the heating duct 15 is liable to make the heater 16 provided to the heating duct 15 to go out of order, or cause breaking out of fire.